The race will not be postponed either as organisers confirmed a big participation event of this scale cannot be easily re-scheduled.

Andrew Taylor, race director of Bath Half Marathon said: “We have been hoping for the best all week, and up until yesterday morning we’d still not had any snow in Bath.

"But yesterday’s snowfall, the forecast outlook, and the impact on available resources due to the Major Incident declared last night by the police, plus loss of critical contractors and suppliers, and freezing conditions forecast for participants and volunteer has left us with no option but to cancel the event.

"This is not a decision we have made lightly, we are experienced organisers and we have never had to cancel the event before, so as you can imagine we are as devastated as the runners that we have had to make this decision.

“We feel really sorry for all the runners that have trained and fundraised for their charities.

“Runner, spectator and volunteer safety is paramount for us and with the current road and pavement conditions cannot guarantee safety underfoot.

"In addition, due to conditions on the national highways network, a number of our key contractors and suppliers are unable to guarantee delivery of critical services on Sunday.

Why can't the marathon be rescheduled?

Andrew Taylor said: “Sadly, it is not possible to simply postpone the race to a future date. A big 'closed road' participation event such as ours can't be easily re-scheduled, it is not like re-booking a spectator event in a fixed venue.

Andrew Taylor has been involved in the Bath Half for 25 years

"To re-schedule we would need to re-run stakeholder consultations, road closures, public notice periods, re-book specialist contractors and volunteers which takes a huge amount of forward planning to organise. Also any new date might not suit participants who have specifically prepared for 4 March.

What happens now for the Bath Half runners?

All registered entrants will be offered a full refund on their race entry.

Mr Taylor said: "There is no need for runners to contact us to request a refund and we will endeavour to process refunds as soon as we possibly can.

"Please bear with us while we work with our registration providers to get an automated refund process in place. A further announcement updating runners on the status and timing of refunds will be issued next week.”

A spokesman for Bath and North East Somerset Council said “We understand the organisers of the Bath Half Marathon have made the decision to cancel the race following advice from safety officers and the police.

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Bath Half 2018

"While the race is an important and valued fixture in the city’s calendar of events, the safety of runners, visitors and volunteers has to be the number one priority. The current weather forecast is for further snow, going into the weekend. This means advice from police and highways agencies is still the same - please keep off the roads unless it is an essential journey.

"The organiser’s decision sensibly avoids also putting additional pressures on stretched services such as the council’s gritting team, the police and the NHS and this allows them to continue to focus on maintaining essential services across the whole of the area during the severe weather.”

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